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This one starts out superbly. The main problem is a kind of Hamlet-like attenuation of a situation that should have been over rather quickly: you never believe that it takes as long as it does to drive the main crew out of the house they are holed up in. Suspension of disbelief comes at a premium just as surely as with Hamlet taking upteem hours and days and weeks and months to get rid of the big old bad guy standing in his way......but then there would have been no play, or in this case an entirely different movie.
However, the beginning is as good as any Boetticher, all silent, signals as quiet as Comanche smoke while a few rebels are ambushing a Union gold shipment before finding out that it was all wasted effort, that the war has been over quite a while. No doubt a plot to be rescued for some world war two Nazi gold movie.
Scott never looked better in a slick black coat believing a rather soft center: it's Frank Faylen who is the greedy one who must pay the price in the end for wanting the gold for himself.
Until the rebel band get stuck between four walls, the film moves like a western should. Yellow Sky , a much better foray into lust for lost gold is a lot more believable, and should be seen for comparison what a great director can do with the magnetic little yellow bags. That said, this still should not be missed for the opening twenty or so minutes.
score 4/10
loydmooney-1 26 December 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1554415/ |
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9-3-2021 04:53:13